The Perilous Slope That Brings Death
by Swagnarok
Summary: In the aftermath of the detonation of the Kirie Building, and of the battle for Teitan Elementary, the Organization has narrowed down its list of possible traitors to two gentlemen. One is Gin, the other is Bourbon. Only one will be allowed back into their good graces. The other will have to disappear from this world. Episodes 1030-1031.
1. Chapter 1

"I am the bone of my sword."

"Steel is my body, and fire is my blood."

"I have forged over a thousand blades."

"Not known to death, nor known to life."

"Having withstood pain to create many weapons"

"Yet those hands will never hold anything."

"So, as I pray, UNLIMITED BLAD-

Haibara opened the door, letting a little bit of light into the room. Satoshi was wearing a homemade cape and looking like a complete dork, and sitting next to Masumi in a dimly illuminated space.

They stared at each other awkwardly.

"...Need I even ask?" she said.

"It's an RPG board game," Satoshi said weakly. "Pretty fun. You, uh, wanna play with us?"

Haibara looked down and saw the board game and the pieces laid out. "No thanks."

And with that, Haibara closed the door on them, leaving them to resume their game (though the mood was broken by this act of interruption).

Conan, Haibara, and Akemi had come over to the waterfront villa in Shikoku. Elena took this opportunity to do something she rarely did: cook dinner. Conan asked if he could come, because there was something he wanted to talk with her about. She said yes. As this was his first time, he had no idea what to expect from her cooking, though he assumed it couldn't be any worse than Eri's.

That evening, they enjoyed a signature British dish: roast beef with vegetables.

Afterwards, Conan waited on the beach. He waited about an hour, and started to wonder whether Elena would be coming or not.

But at last he could hear her footsteps approaching.

She stood next to him and they looked out at the nighttime waves.

"I take it whatever you have to say, you didn't want to say in front of my family?" she asked.

He nodded. "Well, maybe your husband. But...I think I've already done enough harm to your standing in the eyes of your children. No; rather, you did that yourself, but I certainly played a role as well. As for this one more thing, I think we'd both prefer to keep it between the two of us."

"Stop dancing around the issue. Tell me outright what it is you have to say."

The shrunken high school detective sighed. "Elena-san, ten years ago you went through a lot of trouble to find somebody of my description at the beach. You know which one I'm talking about. You arranged to speak with me in private, and then, after you said your piece, you erased my memory of having come."

(Author's Note: If you don't know what I'm talking about, see "The Detectives' Classroom From Ten Year Ago")

He continued: "And then, fairly recently, you went out of your way to make me remember what happened there, and what you said back then."

"And I suppose you want to ask me why I did all that?" Elena said.

He shook his head. "No. I think I already have a good idea, of what your plans for me are."

Elena Miyano's eyes widened in horror.

He looked her square in the eye. "Did you really think...that I'd just lie down and let it happen?"

**Opening**

(_Dragostea Din Tei_, better known as the "Numa Numa Yay Song", cover by BOYFRIEND)

_Ma-ia hii, Ma-ia huu, Ma-ia hoo, Ma-ia haha_

_Ma-ia hii, Ma-ia huu, Ma-ia hoo, Ma-ia haha_

(The ingenuity of the criminal mind is matched only by the detective's wit! The Organization's inquiry puts pressure on agent Bourbon! Meanwhile, an American tour group is caught up in a grisly crime overseas! Perceiving the one and only truth! With the body of a child but the mind of an adult, my name is DETECTIVE CONAN!)

_Alo, salut, sunt eu, un haiduc_

_Si te rog, iubirea mea, primeste fericirea_

_Alo, alo, sunt eu, Picasso_

_Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic, dar sa stii, nu-ti cer nimic_

_Vrei sa pleci dar numa numa iei_

_Numa numa iei_

_Numa numa numa iei_

_Chipul tau si dragostea din tei_

_Mi-amintesc de ochii tai_

_Vrei sa pleci dar numa numa iei_

_Numa numa iei_

_Numa numa numa iei_

_Chipul tau si dragostea din tei_

_Mi-amintesc de ochii tai_

**The Perilous Slope That Brings Death! Part One!**

_Damp. Humid._

_Hot._

_Of all of the places where the Organization could've decided to hold him..._

_Well, Amuro thought, an abandoned water tower in the countryside wasn't such a bad idea. If I were to make a jump for it, I'd at least break my legs, and possibly my life. I'd have to climb down the ladder...and then they'd have me. All it'd take is one guy with a gun to stand watch._

_His face was swollen. And sweaty. He wondered whether it was possible he might get an infection from these conditions._

_He had plenty of space with which to walk around, but he'd been there, done that already._

_Four days ago the Organization's attempt to re-capture Ryusuke Higo, their wayward lieutenant, went belly-up as the sudden appearance of Sherry at Teitan Elementary during the crisis led to their resounding defeat._

_But that wasn't why he was here._

_The night before that, the Organization had acted on a new development: the sudden movement of Akemi Miyano's body, as determined by a tracker. They were confident that their adversaries, who they believed to be in possession of the Elixir, planned to restore her to life, and that following where her body was taken to would lead them straight to the lair of their enemies._

_There was only one problem with this plan: it was a trap. Evidently, their enemies found out about the tracker on Akemi's body, and it was used to lure several of the Organization's codenamed agents into a building rigged with explosives._

_Agents Chianti, Tequila, Calvados, and Vodka saw their bodies so thoroughly annihilated that there was no hope of reviving them. Gin, however..._

_Well, seconds before the explosion Gin came smashing through the window on the sixth story. Of course, he was killed as soon as his body hit the pavement below. But in the same vein his form was preserved intact, allowing for his revival alone._

_On that night, somebody else was told to be present for the mission: agent Bourbon. But for whatever reason, he never showed._

_To the Organization, that was very, very suspicious._

_Two days ago, he was abducted suddenly from his home and taken way out here to the middle of nowhere. Amuro wished they'd simply beaten him, as in the movies, but no. They were determined to make him talk._

_"Are you a double agent?"_

_"Have you collaborated with the enemies of the Organization?"_

_They kept asking him these questions over and over, and they would only be satisfied with one answer._

_He felt his cheeks, to get a sense of the teeth lying underneath. One should've been missing._

_Sure enough, it was, and what remained was a weird gap. A sensation he hadn't experienced since he was a child systematically shedding his baby teeth. This time, however, nothing would be growing back._

_He had to admit, he almost cracked. The only thing that kept him going strong was the mental image of Elena. That woman, who to varying degrees who'd been part of his life since he was a child. __A woman to whose cause he owed his undying allegiance...and who promised to grant his heart's desire at the end of this long, arduous road. _

_Even then, if his torturers had thought to try pulling out his fingernails, well, that would've broken him. He would've told them absolutely everything they wanted to know. Even if they murdered him afterwards, just so long as that meant an end to his agony._

_But so far, he'd done alright. He wondered what the implications of that were. That they could remove one of his teeth and he still wouldn't confess. Would they take that as a sign that he really was innocent?_

_How much longer was he going to be stuck in here?_

_He knew he still had value to them as an agent. Surely they would be eager to have him get right back to work. After all, specialist agents were in short supply these days. The kind of skill set he offered wasn't commonplace. He'd be difficult to replace._

_They have nothing on me, he thought. Just an absence from that one mission, and I've already explained to them why that was. Any hour now, they'll send a guy in here and tell me I'm free to g-_

_With a loud creaking noise, the metal hatch was opened._

_Gin entered._

_Or, rather, he was shoved inside. And then the hatch closed again._

_Gin, who'd fallen to the ground, stood up and faced Amuro from across the room._

_Something about this isn't right, Amuro thought._

_"YOU...!"_

_Gin charged him, and tackled him into the wall. Amuro quickly gained his bearings and resisted. They ended up wrestling on the hard ground. Finally, Amuro gained the upper hand._

_Amuro raised his fist to smack Gin right in the face. But he hesitated, when he realized that-_

_Gin's face was already badly bruised and swollen. By the looks of things, he'd been tortured just as badly as Amuro._

_Amuro stood, and offered his hand._

_Rejecting it, Gin got up on his own._

_"...Do you have any idea," Gin began, "what I've been through because of you? You traitor!"_

_"I'm not a traitor," Amuro said calmly._

_That's good, Amuro thought. Liars have a tendency to avoid strong affirmative statements like the one I just made. Keep it up, me._

_Gin scoffed. "Sure you're not."_

_"Gin, what did they do to you?"_

_"Isn't that obvious?" Gin retorted, turning his face and walking away, though it was not as though there was anywhere for him to escape to in order to get away from Amuro._

_Amuro followed him. "Do you know what happened?"_

_"Yeah, more or less," Gin said. "The enemy got us good. There was an explosion in a tower, and I was the only survivor. Even Vodka..."_

_He gritted his teeth. "Even Vodka died. As in, for good. They can't bring him back."_

_"And because you survived, they suspected you," Amuro finished._

_"Yeah. It wasn't me, though."_

_"How can you know for sure?" Amuro pointed out. "You don't remember the past two weeks of your life, correct? Who kn-_

_"I said it WASN'T ME, OKAY?!" Gin exploded, screaming in Amuro's face. "I would NEVER betray the Organization! I've devoted my LIFE to it! Without it, I am NOTHING! I have NOWHERE else to go! This is my ONLY home, and I would never turn on it!"_

_"Okay, okay, sheesh," Amuro said, seeing this was a sensitive topic for Gin. "This isn't like you."_

_"Yeah, well, you try being tortured for five hours straight."_

_"Already did," Amuro said. "Though it wasn't straight. More stretched out, rather. Over the past two days."_

_"...You're good, then," Gin said. "Whoever you work for, they must've trained you well."_

_"I work for the same people you do," Amuro said._

_"Which is what you would say, naturally."_

_Amuro had no response to that. If he wanted to convince Gin, he couldn't afford to speak in terms of hypothetically being a traitor "for the sake of argument". He had to insist on his innocence with the same deep felt conviction that an innocent man would demonstrate._

_Amuro folded his arms. He leaned against the wall. "If neither one of us was the traitor, then I guess there's nothing left to do but to wait until the Organization comes around and lets us go."_

_Gin said nothing._

**Scene Transition**

_Conan's body had alerted him by now to the fact that he'd been sleeping too long. The longer he kept this up, the more uncomfortable he felt lying in bed._

_Well, he knew he could afford it today. Another day without school, was what today was._

_He didn't want to admit it to Ran, but he was already starting to miss seeing their faces, hearing their voices. In a normal world, he would've had little to nothing to do with them. He was a young man, they were little kids who were not his relatives or progeny. But in the craziness that had become his everyday life, they were not only his friends but his equals._

_And four days ago, their lives were endangered because of his meddling. Understandably, they would need some time alone before things could go back to normal._

_He sat up and put his trademark faux glasses on._

_Or, at least, that was what he tried to do. Though his vision was just fine, he was apparently too lazy to turn his head all the way, so he groped around with his hand until he was touching his glasses._

_And he ended up accidentally pushing them off the nightstand._

_The sudden cracking made him wince._

_Nancy, who was reading an old, vaguely homoerotic manga called _"The Rose of Versailles"_, reacted instantly to the sound._

_"Don't tell me that you-_

_"Yeah, I cracked them," Conan said, holding the glasses in his hand. "And of all times, when I'm stuck in the house all day with both your parents."_

_"H-Hey, you're not suggesting that they'll, you know..."_

_"For some reason these glasses always made a huge difference in how people see me," Conan said._

_"Always? You mean, you've been wearing that same pair since you first became Conan?"_

_"Yeah. Well, either I can get them fixed or replace them. But one thing's for certain. If they see me not wearing glasses, it'll remind them of how much I look like Ran's certain friend when he was little."_

_It certainly had that effect on you back in the day, he thought._

_"You know what I think? You should go over to the Professor's house and ask for a spare," Nancy said._

_Conan shook his head. "Elena-san and her family are camping out there for the time being. It's best if I don't intrude."_

_"Then you could try your own house?"_

_He nodded. "Sounds like a plan."_

**Scene Transition**

_Members of the Organization did not establish deep friendships with one another. _

_This rule had few exceptions. Gin and Vodka had not been particularly close. At most, they respected each other, and even the extent to which that much was true was questionable. Chianti had respected Korn, and held feelings for Calvados._

_But at the back of their minds, everyone was aware that their "colleagues" could be ordered to turn on them at any moment. No one could actually rely upon those in his circle, when things came down to it. The true nature of their relationship was business. As the old saying goes, "There is no honor among thieves"._

_Gin and Bourbon had never tried to be friends. Even if they had, what difference would it have made now? At present there was no trust between the two men. Gin knew Bourbon was probably a spy, and Bourbon could plainly see that Gin had become increasingly unhinged and might turn on him whether the Organization wanted this or not._

_For the umpteenth time, Gin roared and kicked the metal hatch, as though somehow that would accomplish something._

_"Won't you relax already," Amuro finally said. "Like I said before, I expect that they'll let us both out soon."_

_"Hmm? And what makes you so sure of that?"_

_"Because we've done nothing wrong."_

_"And how would you define nothing wrong?" Gin asked._

_"Well, as relevant here, I mean nothing wrong as in neither one of us has ever acted disloyally to the Organization."_

_Gin was silent. But that look on his face-_

_"Oi...Surely you haven't done anything, right Gin?"_

_Again Gin was silent._

_Amuro shifted his rear end in a more comfortable sitting position, to keep his weight off of the same one spot._

_"Hey, Bourbon...when you joined, do you remember how the Organization did a background check on you?"_

_"I do. I gave them my driver's license, a certified copy of my birth certificate, and the contract I signed with the landlord when I rented the apartment at my address at the time."_

_Gin nodded. "Perhaps they never told you, but there were some glaring discrepancies. We couldn't find any record of who your former employers were, any info on family members, or a record of you attending any college in Japan. Your name suggests you are from this country, and yet it's as if you were never here until we came across you."_

_"Really?" Amuro said, surprised. "I remember them approving me without a hitch."_

_"Yes. In fact, those discrepancies were why you were hired."_

_"H-Huh?!"_

_"We figured you were the kind of man who was desperate to keep his real identity hidden, because of legal issues. More particularly, we suspected you were an illegal immigrant."_

_Amuro laughed. "Is it because of my dark skin?"_

_"You look like an Austronesian aborigine," Gin said. "Anyways, we knew an illegal immigrant could be trusted to never turn to the police for anything. That was exactly the kind of person we wanted on our team."_

_He continued: "Bourbon, what I just described is the opinion of the Council. My personal theory was a little different: that you were working for the police, and they arranged to give you a brand new identity so that you'd have a shot of infiltrating our group. Your Japanese is utterly impeccable, both in speaking and in writing, which is uncharacteristic of an immigrant. Our language is notoriously difficult to learn, after all. Either you came here as a young child or you're not a foreigner. Am I in the ballpark with this?"_

_"Dunno, maybe I like to hold my cards close to me," Amuro said. "If I couldn't even be trusted to guard my own secrets, how could the Organization entrust me with theirs? It's not like you need to know everything about me. I know little about you, after all."_

_Having almost shifted the conversation away from himself, Amuro knew it was time to deflect some back at his interrogator._

_"How about you?" he asked. "From what I do know, you joined as a teenager. Did they run a background check on you?"_

_"No," Gin said. "Like you, I have a past that I'd rather not disclose."_

_"Then we're in the same boat," Amuro said._

_Gin smirked. "Same boat, huh. Yeah, that's right. I suppose if I were you, I'd want the man 'Gin' to think we have stuff in common, so that we might bond through our time in here together, so that finally he might vouch for my innocence and get me out of here quicker."_

_"Did your mom ever tell you that you shouldn't overthink everything?" Amuro asked._

_"No, my mom passed when I was young," Gin said. "It was just me and my brother, for a long time. The other kids our age, well, they didn't usually treat us very good."_

_"I can relate," Amuro said, his confidence growing by the second. "Growing up I was picked on because I'm a hafu. I got into a lot of fights as a result."_

_(Author's Note: Assuming that somewhere on earth a non-weaboo is reading this, a "hafu" is a person who is half-Japanese and half foreigner by blood. Most notably here, Haibara is a hafu, and in canon material so is Elena, though in my fanon continuity that is not the case as my first description of Haibara being "half white" preceded the revelation of Elena's ethnic background in the DC manga by almost two years.)_

_"Keep up the good work," Gin said cynically. "If I had half of your skill at shamelessly sucking up to people I could've become a corporate big wig long time ago."_

_"It's the truth," Amuro said seriously. "And with that natural blond hair of yours I take it you're mixed race as well."_

_"Are you blind?" Gin snapped. "My hair's not-_

_"Yeah, I know, it's silver now," Amuro said. "Somewhere along the way you must've dyed it. Silver hair is obviously unnatural, so the normal conclusion would be that it used to be some other color. But a person observing wouldn't know which color. Typically they would just assume it used to be black, because that's the standard color of people's hair here in Japan. That's how you hide your own hafu status."_

_"...I'm not a hafu," Gin said._

_"You're really going to try to deny it?"_

_"No. I'm not a hafu because...I'm not Japanese."_

_Amuro's eyes widened. "Are you for real?"_

_Gin nodded weakly. "You should've guessed this already, since you guessed that my hair was blond. By all accounts the genes for blond hair are usually suppressed whenever a person with this trait marries someone without such, especially a person of African or Asian descent. I was born in the US, to Caucasian parents. They were soldiers, actually. Or at least, my dad was. That's what we were told by the orphanage staff when we were kids, and I later confirmed it by checking online service records of the US armed forces."_

_What the heck? Amuro thought. Somebody as professional as Gin wouldn't be blabbing his own background info to somebody he doesn't trust. So what that must mean is..._

_Gin still suspected Amuro. But his resolve was slipping. He was beginning to doubt Bourbon's guilt._

_Which means I have the upper hand, he thought smugly, his exterior never betraying him as his heart gloated._

**Scene Transition**

_Subaru Okiya answered the door. As usual, it took him a second to realize that he ought to be looking down._

_"Yo, long time no see," he said._

_They came inside and he closed the door behind them._

_"Please excuse the mess," he said. "I rented a whole bunch of books to help me study."_

_"Eh?" Nancy responded. "Study?"_

_"Yeah," Okiya/Akai said. "Lately I've given some thought as to what I want to do with my life after we defeat the Organization."_

_"Oh you mean something other than planting bombs in elementary schools?" Conan retorted._

_"It paid off in the end, didn't it? Anyways, I think I want to pursue a craft. A craft that entails building things with my two hands. I'm not entirely sure what that'll look like yet, but I've been looking into..."_

_As he talked, he followed them to Yusaku and Yukikos's old bedroom._

_Conan rummaged around for a little while, ignoring Okiya's banter until he found a spare set of glasses._

_He put them on. __And turned to Nancy._

_"How do I look?" he asked._

_"Spiffy, as always," she answered. "But Mom and dad will definitely notice that it's not the same pair."_

_"That's better than them seeing me without glasses," Conan said. "We can tell them the truth, except that in our telling it was the Professor who gave us the spare."_

_And so, they left._

_As they headed out the front gate of the Kudo residence, they turned and noticed-_

_"Huh?" Conan said._

_It was a group of obvious foreigners, with a Japanese-looking (and Japanese-speaking) man at the front of the group._

_"It's probably just a tour group," Nancy said._

_"A what?"_

_"In most cases, tourists are unable to speak whatever the local language is," Nancy explained._

_"Right. I knew that much."_

_"So in some cases, what they do is they book a spot on a tour group, sponsored by a company which arranges for them to all stick together and be escorted by a bilingual tour guide," Nancy finished. "I hear it's particularly common among Russian nationals."_

_"I feel like this is backwards," Conan said. "Normally I'm the one explaining things to somebody who isn't in the know."_

_"I saw it on a romantic comedy," she said. "In the movie, a woman part of a tour group in France meets a handsome local man, and-_

_"I'll probably never see the movie in question so there's no need explaining the premise to me," Conan said. "Rom-Coms are dumb."  
_

_"You do realize we're both the main characters in a series that's partially a Rom-Com," Nancy said._

_"Shh, quit breaking the fourth wall!" Conan shushed._

_They looked awkwardly at you, the viewer, for a second and then turned and resumed their business._

_There was silence for a couple of seconds. But Conan, who wanted to get the last word in, muttered:_

_"Well it used to be a Rom-Com but ever since the fanon changes involving you shrinking, that's not really the case anymore."_

_"You never know what might happen between us in the future," Nancy fired back._

_"_Oh? If it isn't a Japanese boy and girl,_" one of the tourists, Judith Sanger, a woman in her 50s, said in English._ "How kawayee!"

"Shouldn't they be in school though?" _her husband, Joseph Sanger, approximately the same age, said._

"Ah, about that," _the tour guide, Yuuta Nibutani, age 27, said._ "Recently there was, uh, some trouble around these parts involving a terrorist attack on an elementary school. They also discovered some bombs. So for the time being, some schools in the area have-

"Oh how awful!" _another tourist interrupted._

"Terrorism? I thought Japan was a safe country!" _another tourist protested_.

"How come we weren't told about this?" _another tourist complained._

"N-Now now," _the tour guide said. _"America has its occasional violent incidents, right? But that doesn't stop people from visiting. It's the same here. Japan is normally a very, very safe country. But there are bad people here as with anywhere else. It shouldn't have any impact on your stay here. You are in no danger, I can assure you all."

_Another tourist, a husky neckbearded man in his late twenties or early thirties who was wearing an old school DregonBall Y t-shirt, caught the tour guide's attention and whispered something in his ear._

_A couple of seconds later the tour guide faced Conan and Nancy. He went up to them and crouched down._

_"Oi," he said, "Kids, can you help me out?"_

_"Hmm?"_

_"Can either one of you speak English, by any chance?" he asked._

"Does this answer your question, sir?" _Conan said matter-of-factly in English._

_Nancy, catching a hint of the haughtiness in his voice, looked on glumly as she was not anywhere near the same level of fluency as him._

_"Great," he said. "You see, as part of the tour deal they're all going to be spending two nights at a traditional _(Japanese) _style inn. Their effects are being moved from the regular hotel and we're on our way now. But one of our group members is asthmatic and he's having a little trouble. Not used to big city air, you see. So he wants me to go back and get his inhaler straight away from the room. But that's in the opposite direction and I don't want to cause trouble for everyone else."_

_"The inn you're taking them to, I'm guessing it's the Morozuki Inn?" Conan asked._

_"You got it. It's just a couple blocks from here. And, uh, just between you and me, if you help a fellow out I might make it worth your while. So will you do it?"_

_"Sure, why not," he said._

_"Great."_

_Addressing the group, he told them real fast what was happening and then ran off in a hurry._

_Conan stared awkwardly at the mob of puzzled foreigners whose job it now was to guide._

_He cleared his throat and-_

"Hello everybody. I will be your guide until we reach the Morozuki Inn. If you will please follow me and don't stray from the group."

**Scene Transition**

_And so, Conan led them across town. He was dumbfounded by how they oohed and awed over the tiniest thing. These people were very easy to impress. He considered showing them the Bell Tree Tower but that would've required a significant detour so he ruled against it._

_Finally, they arrived. Conan helped them check into their rooms. However, as their rooms were not quite ready yet they were all invited to relax in the courtyard out back, which had a zen garden._

_He knew it wouldn't be a good idea to leave until the English-literate guide returned._

_Taking off his shoes and putting on a child's pair of slippers, Conan sat down crisscrossed on the raised wooden veranda, the sunlight barely reaching his knees._

_Nancy plopped down beside him._

_"You didn't have to follow us here," Conan said._

_"Yeah, well, it's not like I had anything better to do," she said._

_A moment of silence._

_"You know," she said, "I've passed by this place before."_

_"Yeah, me too."_

_"But I never got to see what it looked like on the inside. But man, look at this view."_

_There was a little stream running gently across the center of the garden. The stream was fed by a trickling faucet which emptied into a bamboo contraption called a "Shishi-odoshi", which was propelled by gravity to strike a rock from time to time, emitting a startling noise in the process._

_There were exotic plants growing all around, and a "pond" of white rocks organized so as to look like rippling waves. The large outdoor enclosure was completely fenced in so that one could enter or exit only from the indoor space. The fence was tall and by design it would've been quite difficult to climb, especially from the outside._

_And of course, the wide-eyed tourists were eating it all up._

_All of these exuberant people here made it look like a backyard pool party, except without the pool, and without everything else that goes into a pool party._

_They couldn't help but notice a young boy, about the same age that they looked, hopping around on one foot._

_"What's he playing, hopscotch?" Nancy asked._

_"Who even does that anymore?"_

_They glanced around._

_"It looks like he's the only kid in this group," Conan said._

_"That's gotta suck. Is he an only child, perhaps?"_

_The kid hopped up to them._

_"_Hey there buddy_," Conan said in a singsong voice. "_Whatcha doin?_"_

_You don't have to use a condescending tone, Nancy thought disdainfully. You and him are the same age._

_"_I'm fighting the grimes._"_

_"_The what?"

_Maybe my English isn't as immaculate as I thought, Conan thought sheepishly._

"The grimes. They're balloon monsters tied to bricks so they don't fly away. They wanna take over the world. I'm a famous karate master called Taekwondo Kiwi and I'll defeat them by popping them with my one leg punch!"

_He certainly...has a vivid imagination, Conan thought with a deadpan look._

_The boy continued:_

"If I pop one thousand grimes I get to fight king grime and then I save the world."

"Oh, I think I get what this game's about," _Conan said to the boy and Nancy._ "What number are you on?"

"Five hundred and sixty," _the boy said proudly._

"And you are popping them all by yourself?" _Nancy asked, only vaguely aware of what he was saying._

_The boy looked sad. _"I was popping them with Rico but he wasn't allowed to come with me."

"Who's Rico? Is that your best friend?" Conan asked.

_The boy nodded_.

"Well I'm Nancy and this is Conan."

_The boy waved, though he was standing right in front of them._ "I'm Sully."

"Nice to meet you Sully. What number were you on when you boarded the plane?" _Conan asked._

"Umm, four hundred," _Sully said._

"Well, don't you think you should wait for him before you pop more, uh, whatever you call them?" _Conan asked._ "You're playing without him, right? I don't think he'll be happy about that."

"But...I'm very bored. And mom says we have to stay here for a week."

_Conan smiled sadly. _"I know what it's like to be without your friend. It's the worst feeling in the world, isn't it?...Tell you what. Do you have a cell phone?"

_Sully nodded_.

"Can I have your number?"

_The boy gave it. In exchange, Conan gave Sully his and they put the contact info in each other's phone_.

_Wait, Nancy thought. That number...why does it sound so familiar_?

"What day are you going home?" _Conan asked._

Sully told him.

"Okay. Let's keep in touch for as long as you're here in Japan_,_" _Conan said._ "You can call me at any time. I'm not in school right now so we can hang out whenever you want."

_They practiced texting each other some, and then the tour guide came back. Soon Conan and Nancy left and headed home._

**Scene Transition**

_They stood in line at the crosswalk._

_"I appreciated the way you were so nice to that boy," Nancy said. "I didn't understand half of what he was saying, but..."_

_She giggled._

_"What's so funny?" Conan asked._

_"You have a way with children, don't you? I mean, you used not to. But you've changed."_

_"But of course. I have to go to school with them now, so that teaches you a thing or two about patience."_

_"Well, I think that's a good quality in a man."_

_"Why than-_

_Conan paused as he reflected upon the double meaning of that statement. _

_"H-Hey wait a second!" he protested, blushing._

_Nancy, in a happy mood, went on ahead at breakneck speed._

**Scene Transition**

_This was grating._

_With Gin around, Amuro felt like he just couldn't relax at all._

_That man..._

_Why was his ear pressed up to the front door._

_The silence in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Neither one of them dared breathe a word. Well, they didn't have much to say to each other anyway._

_Suddenly, Gin bolted to life and ran at Amuro._

_Caught off guard, Amuro staggered backwards in a pathetic attempt to react._

_Instead of attacking, however, Gin leaned casually against the wall and began spouting nonsense._

_"I really think the trends in team batting averages over the past couple of years reflect that the Red Sox's player lineup methods are woefully outdated for the purposes of contemporary baseball. They're failing to recruit sufficient young talent from the West Coast and-_

_The door swung open. A man with a gun slung to his shoulder entered holding two trays of food._

_Gin seemingly ignored the man and kept on talking._

_"In particular, I think coach Costello needs to step aside and give way to more forward-thinking..._

_The man who'd delivered their food and water turned to go._

_And then, Gin's predatory eyes turned to the man, who was doubtlessly an employee of the Organization, and..._

_He made a mad lunge at the man across the room. The man, caught off guard, was unable to take his gun out of his pocket before-_

_"Yaaaaaaaaah!"_

_Then, there was a sickening crack as the bones in the man's body were shattered and his skull split open on the ground below. Gin had pushed him off the water tower. The door was wide open, and the window of escape had opened._

_Gin was the first to descend the ladder._

_Amuro, shocked that someone like Gin would pull a foolhardy stunt like that, stood frozen in his makeshift cell._

_One minute later, Gin ascended, holding the rifle lifted from the dead man._

_He pointed it at Amuro._

_"H-Huh? Gin...what are you doing?" Amuro began, his mind scrambling to find some way to talk Gin out of killing him._

_"...You first. Down the ladder."_

_Amuro blinked. "I'm sorry? You want me to go down the ladder?"_

_"Yeah," Gin said calmly. "We're escaping. Both of us."_

_The dark skinned Tokyo MPD agent dared to ask: "What if I don't want to escape?"_

_"Are you blind? I'm holding an AR-15 to your head. What gave you the idea that I'm giving you a choice to stay put? If I go then you're coming with me. Otherwise, that'll just be confirmation for them that I'm the traitor. At least there's a little room left for ambiguity this way, should we be recaptured."_

_Knowing that it would be stupid to try fighting a desperate man with a loaded gun, Amuro raised his hands above his head so Gin could see them. "Okay, okay. You win."_

_None of it made sense to him. Had Gin finally gone mad from the torture? Had the Men in Black actually convinced him of his own culpability, that he was the mole they were looking for, contrary to everything that his own memory would've told him? Or...d__id he simply want out?_

_Either way, for the time being Amuro had no options except to do whatever Gin told him._

_His feet touched solid ground. Soon after, Gin finished his descent as well._

_"So what's your plan, Gin? Where on earth are we going to hide from the Black Organization?"_

_"You'll find that out soon enough. Come on. Start walking."_

**Scene Transition**

**The Next Day**

_Conan's heavy breathing, groaning and mumbling alerted Nancy that he was home._

_He dragged his feet up the stairs and opened the door._

_She was waiting._

_"Finally," she whispered._

_Without answering her he went to their room to grab his nightclothes._

_"There are some leftovers in the refrigerator if you're hungry," she said._

_"No thanks. I just wanna shower and go to sleep."_

_"I still can't believe you do that."_

_"Huh?"_

_"Take showers. Aren't you a bit short for that?"_

_"Not really."_

_"Your skin isn't more sensitive now to the pressure of running water beating down on you?"_

_"Nope," he said as he grabbed a towel and rag from the laundry bin._

_He shut the bathroom door and not one minute later Nancy heard the shower roar to life._

_It was not a long shower and soon he was out._

_He did a kind of backwards dive onto his bed, his arms extended._

_"Long day, huh?" she commented._

_"Don't even get me started. Me and Sully spent like an hour playing at the park and then we literally hiked up Mt. Fuji. That kid just wouldn't let up. Seems like all he wanted to do was wrestle and play tag. Little kids have a seemingly unlimited store of energy. I don't understand it at all."_

_"And you'll do it all over again tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. Rinse, lather, repeat, until the day he goes back to America."_

_"Ugh. Stop. I feel nauseous just thinking about it. If I can get a good night's sleep then maybe I'll be well rested and able to take it for tomorrow."_

_"Yeah, about that. Before you doze off..."_

_He sat up. "Huh?"_

_"I've been wondering. The other day, when you gave him your phone number..."_

_"What are you talking about?"_

_He took his phone and peered over his texts to Sullivan._

_It didn't take him long to find it. The very first one, sent yesterday morning._

_You can't be freaking serious, he realized._

_"C-Crap!" he blurted out loud, sitting up with a jolt._

_He had given this kid the number to Shinichi Kudo's phone._

**Scene Transition**

_"Kuso, kuso, kuso, kuso...!"_

_How could he have done something so moronic?_

_And the worst part was, he could've been back at home sleeping soundly right now if not for this debacle. A matter like this couldn't wait until tomorrow. Every second that Shinichi Kudo's phone number was attached to texts ascribed to the child named Conan Edogawa was another second that his cover could be blown. However unlikely this scenario was, he couldn't take the risk._

_Panting, they arrived finally at the front gate of the Morozuki Inn. But as it turned out, big shocker, they locked their doors at night._

_"We're going to have to climb the fence out back," Nancy said._

_Well, that was the story of how Conan ended up standing on top of her to boost his height just enough to reach the top. Once he grabbed on, the "fun part" was saved for him: pulling her up with his own body weight._

_Needless to say, it was a night they would not want to relive._

_Conan sent a text._

_A few seconds later Sully responded._

_"Alright, he's up," Conan said. "Let's meet him over th-_

_There was a half moon out tonight, whose glistening rays were seemingly concentrated on one spot, where the white stones of the zen "rock garden" perfectly reflected lunar rays._

_Which meant, that as they approached..._

_They suddenly had a clear view of the body._

_Nancy screamed, which was totally something Ran would do no matter how many dead bodies she'd seen already._

_Tonight's victim was Joseph Sanger, the middle aged man referenced by name earlier who'd been part of the tour group. His head was bashed in, his lifeless pupils expressing the shock and disbelief he must've felt in his final moment._

**Ending**

(Dance of the Nutcracker Prince by Aoi Yuki, Bonnie's VA)

Nodding off that drab evening, my form was transfigured suddenly

Clad in colorful garments I found myself in the middle of a field

Beneath a brilliant canopy of stars lost to the world I knew

I was in a place not found on any map but only in storybooks

Having just gained my bearings I was most puzzled to behold

At the end of the field was none other than a yellow brick road

At the end of the road was an imposing castle on top of a hill

Propelled by nothing the drawbridge lowered, welcoming me

Waiting for me inside, a gentleman of a long-dead breed

The ensemble sprang to life, setting a dignified mood

I took his arm and side, as the night's first waltz began

Locked in a stately embrace we danced across the stage

The vigor in his step took us faster, and then faster still

But I didn't speak up; I was having the time of my life

In free-spirited orbit of the margins, as a celestial object

Spinning until everything was a blur, except for his eyes

Laughing merrily, we rested our heads beneath the oak

"My lady," he said, "it was an honor to have this dance."

"This night belongs to you. Let no one take it from you."

"All things under the sun must fade. Can you see it now?"

An unforgettable night crossed the threshold of dawn

A finishing bow he gave as the sun washed him away

I am scared to death of having to live one more day

In this sterile world viewed through a gray tinted lens

Of heavy feet, cold eyes, hollow words and jaded hearts

Walking through a graveyard of dreams and expectations

My eyes once saw absurdities that I will never see again

Between a subdued earth and a kind moon, in his arms

**Next Conan's Hint: Tatami Mat**


	2. Chapter 2

Known in life as a quiet man with a frightening work ethic, to the point where he had no time or need for the ordinary affairs and pleasures of life, Egelbert son of Harold was the kind who would've had little problem spending years on end cooped up in his chamber. One of several thousand workhorses entrusted with administrative functions critical to the smooth operation of the "space between lives", he was exactly where he belonged.

Born in the middle part of the 12th century, Egelbert spent decades of his life performing bureaucratic work as the keeper of rolls in his lord's manorial court. He died childless and penniless, but in truth he was just grateful to have managed to avoid a life in the fields.

This visage of his old work chamber was in truth a simulation produced by the "space between lives". This marvelous recreation was accurate down to the scarcest detail. With one major exception, of course: his modern desk and swiveling chair.

Oh well. He didn't miss his old wooden scrivener's bench in the slightest.

*knock knock*

Goodness how that startled him! It had been so long since he last had a visitor that he could've almost died of fright, if not for the fact that he was already long dead.

He gained his bearings and muttered "Come in, come in."

The wooden door swung open and there she was standing before him, that fair maiden named Bonnie.

Egelbert had met Bonnie a number of times before. The girl had established herself as one of the most driven and productive "guides" out there. More than that, actually. After all that she had said and done, and for such a very long while (over 50 years in earth time), she retained a powerful sense of empathy that allowed her to attend to every lost soul with unique care. That quality, in short supply, was a valuable commodity in a place like this.

On account of her extraordinary talent she'd come to meet many of the top brass of the celestial bureaucracy, in which Egelbert enjoyed a prominent position.

And so, as she stood before him now there was no need for introductions.

"Bonnie," he greeted jovially. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"I need you to get me in touch with Gabriel. It's a matter of utmost importance that cannot wait."

See Gabriel? he thought. Why would she need to...?

And then he remembered.

"...This is about that brother of yours, isn't it?" Egelbert asked.

"Yeah."

He stood up. "Excuse me."

He brushed past her and headed out the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Where else? To find Gabriel."

**Scene Transition**

_Conan sent a text._

_A few seconds later Sully responded._

_"Alright, he's up," Conan said. "Let's meet him over th-_

_There was a half moon out tonight, whose glistening rays were seemingly concentrated on one spot, where the white stones of the zen "rock garden" perfectly reflected lunar rays._

_Which meant, that as they approached..._

_They suddenly had a clear view of the body._

_Nancy screamed, which was totally something Ran would do no matter how many dead bodies she'd seen already._

_Tonight's victim was Joseph Sanger, the middle aged man referenced by name earlier who'd been part of the tour group. His head was bashed in, his lifeless pupils expressing the shock and disbelief he must've felt in his final moment._

**Opening**

(_Dragostea Din Tei_, better known as the "Numa Numa Yay Song", cover by BOYFRIEND)

_Ma-ia hii, Ma-ia huu, Ma-ia hoo, Ma-ia haha_

_Ma-ia hii, Ma-ia huu, Ma-ia hoo, Ma-ia haha_

(The ingenuity of the criminal mind is matched only by the detective's wit! The Organization's inquiry puts pressure on agent Bourbon! Meanwhile, an American tour group is caught up in a grisly crime overseas! Perceiving the one and only truth! With the body of a child but the mind of an adult, my name is DETECTIVE CONAN!)

_Alo, salut, sunt eu, un haiduc_

_Si te rog, iubirea mea, primeste fericirea_

_Alo, alo, sunt eu, Picasso_

_Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic, dar sa stii, nu-ti cer nimic_

_Vrei sa pleci dar numa numa iei_

_Numa numa iei_

_Numa numa numa iei_

_Chipul tau si dragostea din tei_

_Mi-amintesc de ochii tai_

_Vrei sa pleci dar numa numa iei_

_Numa numa iei_

_Numa numa numa iei_

_Chipul tau si dragostea din tei_

_Mi-amintesc de ochii tai_

**The Perilous Slope That Brings Death! Part Two!**

_This was one road trip Amuro would never forget._

_In a cruel twist of fate, the man assigned to guard them unwittingly helped them escape. In the first place, it was because of him that Gin and Bourbon were able to leave their cage which was the abandoned water tower. Secondly, they used his car to get away from the scene._

_The car had two features. The first was GPS. The second, in classic "Breaking Good" fashion, was a tracker lodged in the chassis. Both could've been used against them, but instead they determined to turn this game on its head and use these very things to their advantage._

_They used the GPS to gain their bearings, and then removed it from the vehicle. Then they removed the tracker. The fact that the tracker was there in the first place suggested the Organization was confident Gin and Bourbon wouldn't think to look for one in the event that they ran off in it. Therefore, if they left the tracker behind the Organization would assume that nothing of the sort had happened._

_All that this would do, of course, was buy them some time. The guard would've surely been expected to check in, say, every hour or so. Unfortunately his cell phone was busted in the fall so they couldn't check his messages to determine a pattern. They had no idea how much of a head start they had but some was better than none._

_Their escape had happened yesterday around 1 PM. They'd taken turns driving last night, and had stopped three times to refuel the gas tank. Fortunately they'd taken all the cash that the guard had on him so money wasn't a big issue. They even stopped to eat a couple times._

_Yet again it was getting dark out. Barely able to get any shut-eye since yesterday, they were both pretty much running on fumes by now. But Amuro was filled with anticipation; Gin had told him that they would be coming upon their final destination in maybe another thirty minutes, or less._

_That was roughly twenty to twenty-five minutes ago._

_In truth, their destination was plop in the middle of Japan. It wasn't far from Tokyo. Realistically it should not have taken them anywhere near a day and a half to arrive. However, Gin had taken them in a very long-winded loop to stave off the possibility of a road ambush. When thinking clearly, he was nothing if not cautious._

_Then again, Amuro still didn't understand: why did Gin choose to bolt on the Organization when he had nothing to hide? This was not the behavior of a rational person._

_Unless...Gin did have something to hide._

_"Up ahead, the road forks," Gin said. "Turn right when that happens."_

_Amuro did as he was told._

_The next thing he knew, they found themselves in a residential area lined with fancy houses._

_"Park on the shoulder," Gin said._

_"Anywhere?"_

_"Yeah. Just do it."_

_The car parked. Gin, picking up his rifle, got out and Amuro followed._

_"The house is down this road some," Gin said. "I didn't want us pulling in there lest we lose the element of surprise. Come on. Let's go."_

_They made their way to the illuminated front gate of a mansion property._

_"Now we gotta climb this fence," Gin said._

_They did so and walked down the private road. Amuro heard the sound of ducks and surmised there must've been a pond, suggesting affluence._

_"The old man sleeps in the master bedroom upstairs," Gin said. "But we have to be careful. He's armed."_

_"How about a diversion, then?" Amuro suggested. "I throw a rock through a window, to cover for the sound as you kick in the front door at the same time."_

_"No need," Gin said. "I know where he hides a spare key to the house."_

_He turned around, started rummaging through a garden space, and lifted a toy gnome to reveal a key._

_"Alright," he said. "I'm going in first. Follow my lead, and when I signal I'll need you to..."_

_Gin slowly pushed the door open and they stepped foot into the house._

_Gin crept to the stairs, got down on his knees, and aimed his rifle upwards._

_He turned his head and waved to Amuro, who was standing in the kitchen._

_Amuro grabbed some utensils from the drawer and dropped them._

_*klang*_

_The sound would've been loud enough to have been heard from upstairs, but not loud enough to set off the house alarm._

_Gin grinded his teeth as he waited in silence._

_He heard footsteps._

_Wait for it, he thought, starting to work up a mild sweat._

_And then-_

_He turned on his scope's laser light and pointed it at an older gentleman in his underwear._

_"Drop your weapon," he ordered._

_The man slowly did as he was told, setting the gun down on the top step._

_"...Dylan," the man said._

_"It's been too long, father."_

_Father?! Amuro thought, stunned._

**Scene Transition**

_This was the last thing any of them expected to happen during their vacation, to put it lightly._

_They were woken in the middle of the night to screams and police sirens, as it was discovered that one of their own had perished violently._

_None of the inn's staff were fluent in English. Therefore, the police and the Americans were all dependent upon Yuuta Nibutani, the previously mentioned tour guide, to facilitate effective communication in piecing together what happened here tonight._

_Because the inn was both two-storied and had a veranda/porch, the second story (or, at least, that side of the second story which faced the veranda) had a de facto "balcony space" that guests weren't allowed to access for safety reasons._

_The distance between where the balcony space ended and where the "rock garden" was too wide for the victim to have ended up there by way of having been pushed off the balcony._

_Conan Edogawa and Nancy Akechi, the discoverers of the body, were not guests at this inn, which meant they had to come clean and confess to trespassing. Fortunately, neither the police nor the inn staff were in the mood for punishing two young children tonight._

_Instead, after briefly questioning them on what they saw Megure told them both to go home._

_He gently shoved them out the front sliding door and then closed it behind them._

_They turned to each other._

_"Now what?" Nancy asked. "You wanna call it a night?"_

_Conan shook his head. "Remember why we came here."_

_"Sully?"_

_"Yeah. I still need to talk to him. I'll give it five minutes and then sneak back in. If they catch me I'll just say that I left something here I needed to retrieve. Well, in a way that wouldn't be an untrue statement."_

**Five Minutes Later** (in a French narrator's voice)

_Conveniently, nobody seemed to notice as he re-entered the compound. If any of the officers did see him, well, they would've been so used to that boy being here at the local crime scene by now that they wouldn't have paid him any attention._

_He climbed the wooden staircase._

_He was almost to the top when-_

_"My name is Inspector Megure," a voice said from upstairs. "If you wouldn't mind us asking you a few questions about what you saw tonight."_

"Um I can't understand you," _Mrs. Sanger, the victim's wife, said in English._

_"Officer, I can translate," Nibutani's voice chimed in._

_He repeated Megure's sentence to the woman._

_She nodded._

_"Can you account for your husband's whereabouts shortly before he died?"_

_Nibutani translated the question._

_"_Um yes, we went to bed and maybe a half hour later he got up. He said he was going to use the bathroom."

_Nibutani turned to Megure and said: "She says her husband stepped out and didn't tell her where he was going."_

_"I see. And you didn't happen to hear anything coming from outside?"_

_Nibutani translated the question._

_"_No sir, nothing at all,_" the woman said._

_Nibutani translated her answer to Megure._

_"_Oh, come to think of it, it was very quiet,_" the woman said. "_I figured they turned off the bamboo noisemaking thing for the night but if you step outside and listen you can hear it now._"_

_"S-She's just commenting on how much she can't believe this is really happening," Nibutani said to the Inspector._

_Conan could hardly believe what he was hearing. In both cases the woman blatantly said something other than what the tour guide claimed._

_If he would lie about that, then that meant..._

_Knowing that it wasn't safe to go upstairs just yet, he ran out back and returned to the veranda. He stepped onto the courtyard and approached the rock garden where the victim's body had been found._

_In the middle was a large rock. He examined it. Sure enough, there was blood splatter there. A lot of it._

_Then he remembered something else._

_He went to the side corner of the courtyard, where some tatami mats were hanging on a clothesline._

_Or, at least, they should've been hanging up. Instead they were crumpled on the ground some feet away._

_Earlier today, Nibutani-san had "accidentally" spilled cola on two of the mats, so they'd been sprayed down and taken out by staff to dry._

_He looked behind him. Past the balcony and, thus, the veranda also, was a small wooden torii gate._

_And then, the veranda door slid open. Megure and other people stepped outside._

_Slipping past them he ran inside._

_He headed upstairs and checked out the bathroom._

_The bathroom had a modern toilet, sink, and shower. There was also a window from which one could step out onto the de facto balcony._

_He checked out the window. It was unlocked._

_He flipped a light switch and looked down. Sure enough, there was a splotch of blood on the floor._

_Then he stepped into the hallway. Every room needed to be checked, just to make sure of that one thing._

_He opened the door of one of the guest rooms and-_

_"_Huh? Conan?_"_

_It was Sully and his family._

_Conan perked up. "_Sully. Thank goodness I found you!_"_

_"_They're saying you found a dead man outside,_" Sully said._

_Recognizing the downbeat expression on Sully's face, Conan nodded seriously. "_I'm sorry that this had to happen during your vacation._"_

_"Are we in danger?"_

_"_Huh? Of course not sweetie!_" the boy's dad interjected._

_But paying no heed Sully remained fixated on the Japanese boy in glasses and what his answer might be._

_Conan smiled reassuringly. "_No. You and your family are going to be just fine, Sully. Because the police will get to the bottom of this in no time at all._"_

_That looked like it was enough for Sully._

_But then he added:_

_"_How can you be sure?_"_

_Conan already knew how to answer:_

_"_Sully, let me tell you something. A country is strong if its word is strong. If it never breaks its promises. Any country promises that all people inside of its borders can rest secure under its protection. That if anyone would defy the country's will and do harm to any person under said protection, they will leave no stone unturned until they find the criminal and punish him. Your country, America, is a strong one. But Japan is a strong country too. Our government keeps its promises. One doesn't simply get away with murder here. Do you understand?_"_

_..._

_"_Sully?_"_

_"_...That's so cool..._"_

_Cool, huh, Conan thought with a deadpan look. Well, I heard that in a movie somewhere so I can't take credit._

_More on topic..._

_"_Sully, can I see your phone for a second?_"_

_Sully did as he was told._

_Conan promptly deleted the old phone number and put in a new one._

_He handed it back._

_"_Contact me on that new number,_" he said. "_The old one's no good._"_

_And with that, he examined the window. Sure enough, it was locked._

_"_Gotta go, don't leave this room tonight!_" he called back as he ran out of the room in a hurry._

**Scene Transition**

_"It's been too long, father."_

_Without turning his head he ordered:_

_"Bourbon turn on the lights."_

_Amuro flipped a switch, and-_

_"Yowza!" the older man in his underwear yelped as he rushed to take off his night vision goggles._

_"You could've just shut your eyes as soon as I said it," Gin said, standing up._

_"Well I didn't know for sure whether you were bluffing."_

_"Gin, who is this man?" Amuro demanded._

_"Bourbon, this is Muscadine. Muscadine, Bourbon. We escaped together."_

_A grape name, Amuro noted. Does that mean...?_

_"You're a member of the Council," he guessed._

_"You catch on fast," Muscadine said._

_"What's your relation to Gin?"_

_"I found Gin. Him and his brother. They came crawling up to my doorstep decades and decades ago, like two pitiful strays. Surely you do remember that day quite vividly, Dylan?"_

_"I told you never to call me that again," Gin said._

_"Yes. And I told you that if you ever showed your face here again I'd kill you."_

_"I was just following orders," Gin responded forcefully. "What happened to your son was a tragedy but if it wasn't me then somebody else would've done him in."_

_"Yes, and then I would hate that person the same way I hate you now."_

_Gin was silent._

_"...Why are you here, Dylan?" Muscadine asked._

_"I need you to do for me what you did for-_

_"I don't help traitors," Muscadine interrupted dismissively. "Doesn't matter how you threaten me."_

_"I'm not a traitor."_

_"Oh? Then why'd you run?"_

_Gin sighed. "Well, at this point I suppose it doesn't matter whether you know or not. Something I must've screwed up a while back. Three months ago I received a tip, I'm not sure who from, warning me that the police had re-opened their investigation into me. Not for what happened all those years ago, but for something more recent. They uh, whoever it was they sent me a cache of copied police files. Concerning the death of some girl. They think I did her in."_

_"Did you?" Amuro asked._

_"Who knows? I wouldn't have kept count either way."_

_He turned to Bourbon, tired of staring at an old man in his underwear. "What's it to you? Does it upset you that I might have been responsible for her murder?"_

_Amuro knew that if he answered "No" then his face would betray him. The most successful liars, he had been told, mixed in as much truth with their lies as circumstances would permit._

_"Well, yeah, a little," he said. "We're talking about what? A little girl? That's low even for you, Gin."_

_"A teenager, actually," Gin said. "According to the police files, her name was...Ran Mouri?"_

_..._

_Ran, huh, Amuro thought while clenching his fists. That's right. I remember now. Gin, you sick ba***rd, it was y-_

_*BLAM*_

_Before Amuro had any chance to react, he was bleeding out on the floor._

_Gin had shot him right then and there. __Shot him in the head._

**Scene Transition**

_Megure folded his arms. "This case, sheesh. There are way too many suspects. It could've been anyone here, or a complete outsider. I don't know whether I'm coming or going."_

_"Should we bring the witnesses in for questioning?" Sato requested._

_Megure shook his head. "Hold it for just one minute. I should be receiving a call soon."_

_"Eh? A call you say?"_

_"Yeah. It should be around this time, when we the police are completely stumped. Conan-kun was present at the scene of the crime, so that means some person should come along any minute now and solve it for us."_

_ Oi oi, you're treating him like some kind of good luck charm, Sato thought._

_*riiiing*_

_ "Speak of the devil," Megure said as he grasped to answer his phone. "Moshi-moshi? Megure-keibu desu."_

_ "Inspector, it's me."_

_"Oh. Kudo-kun! I haven't heard from you in a while. I take it you have the answers we're looking for?"_

_"Indeed. Please put me on speaker so everyone can hear me."_

_ Megure did such._

_ "Next, please gather the following people: Mrs. Sanger, her son, and the tour guide Yuuta Nibutani."_

_Thirty Seconds Later_

"What's this about?" _the adult son, Jared Sanger, asked._ "Have you found dad's killer?"

_"Inspector, Conan-kun told me about a certain something that he was happen today," Shinichi's voice said. "Nibutani-san was sitting in the parlor room, telling his American clients the story of the Sengoku period and of the Dutch trading post, the island of Dejima. He was holding a can of cola, which he suddenly and rather conspicuously dropped 'by accident', spilling its contents on the margins of two large tatami mats. These were hosed down and left to dry out overnight."_

_"I fail to see how this is relevant," Nibutani said._

_"Be patient. I was getting to that. Nibutani-san, earlier this evening you offered Mr. Sanger a bottle of water. In all likelihood you laced it with a diuretic or a laxative. In the middle of the night he felt the pressing need to use the bathroom. What he didn't know is that you were waiting for him there. You hit him in the back of the head with a strong blow, incapacitating him. It was at this point that you put your plan into action."_

_"Pew! Pew! Pew!"_

_Sully stepped outside._

_Dagnabbit, Conan thought, looking on from a hidden spot. Sully, you weren't supposed to...no. Wait a minute. I can use this._

_"Ah. Sully."_

"Y-Yes?" _Sully said, responding to his name having been spoken._

_"_You told Conan-kun that in the summer you like to play in the water._"_

_Sully nodded excitedly. "_My house has a big backyard and lots of space to put a pool, sprinklers, a slip and slide..._"_

_"_That. A slip and slide. What is that?_"_

_"_It's like this big outdoor carpet with water,_" Sully explained. "_You get a running start and dive onto it, and you slide all the way to the end!_"_

_Shinichi's voice explained to the rest of them what Sully had said._

_"And that, Inspector, is key to this case," Shinichi's voice said. "One witness recalled that she couldn't hear the sound of the shishi-odoshi tonight, but that the sound resumed after she was woken by the discovery of the murder. A shishi-odoshi, as you are aware, relies on water to operate. And so was that certain contraption designed by Nibutani-san. He attached a hose to the running fountain and put the other end on the roof."_

_Nibutani laughed. "Don't be absurd! You really think there's enough water pressure for water to travel vertically all that way?"_

_"Well, yeah. Nibutani-san, maybe you're not thinking this through, but...Ah. I think this is a good way to explain it. _Has anybody here ever seen the Great Aqueduct of Segovia_?"_

_Several of the American tourists who were in earshot raised their hands._

_"Has anybody ever noticed how in some cases, Roman aqueducts have to carry water uphill? How is this possible? Anyone?"_

_Megure was puzzled by this question. "Hmm. I always figured it was propelled by the leftover force generated from having traveled downhill."_

_"And you would be wrong, Inspector. Actually, the water was able to travel uphill because new water was always flowing from behind, pushing the water in front. Uphill, even. And that is how the water in the hose traveled up to the roof. Granted, it took some time but if the culprit set this up say, I don't know, a half hour before the murder, then there shouldn't have been an issue with this."_

_He continued:_

_"Now, back to the 'slip and slide' comparison. Remember those two tatami mats? Well, upright they would've had too much friction to pull this off. But after Conan-kun examined the bottom end he concluded that it was smooth enough. Nibutani-san set up two of the mats as following: one on the balcony leading to the edge. The other was partially off the edge already, and it curved downwards. It was supported in place by the torii gate."_

_He continued:_

_"Nibutani-san, after having incapacitated the victim, took him out the window and onto the balcony. Then he walked with the victim to the other end, got a running start toward the mat laid upside down, pivoted his body sharply and threw the victim onto it at an angle. As with when a car comes to a sudden stop and you the rider are propelled forward slightly, the victim's body kept going for a little while. However, because the water flowing on the upside mat served as a lubricant, he was able to "slide" quite some distance. He went headfirst over the edge, and then, riding on the second mat, his dipped. The shape of the second mat's setup corresponded with a downward ramp, which sent him flying through the air an impressive distance, until he finally bashed his head on the large rock in the middle of the rock garden, and so perished in that instant."_

_He continued:_

_"Nibutani-san was hoping that the sound of people out on the balcony, combined with any screams let out by the victim, combined finally with the sound of his impact with the ground, would awaken guests and inn staff, and turn their attention to the man outside. Now, he was hoping that the body would be discovered instantly. They would rush outside and Nibutani-san, arriving behind them, would have an alibi, as he couldn't have killed Mr. Sanger in the courtyard and then instantaneously made his way back upstairs. If push came to shove and too many questions were asked about the noises on the balcony, Nibutani-san could confess to being up there. The distance between the balcony and the rock garden was too great for Mr. Sanger to have been thrown, in any event."_

_He finished:_

_"In the confusion of what was going on, Nibutani-san would remove evidence of his crime. The strangely placed tatami mats along with the hose. However, something happened tonight that he did not anticipate: nobody noticed immediately when Mr. Sanger was murdered. Instead, his body was discovered by sheer chance by two nosy children from outside the tour group. Conan-kun examined the body on-scene and determined that based on rectal temperature, he had been dead for a good while. Maybe an hour or two."_

_Nancy, in hiding with Conan, tapped him on the shoulder._

_"Hold on," she whispered. "Rectum. You mean to say you put your finger in his butt?!"_

_"Baka, it was for science!" Conan protested, blushing._

_"A-Anyways," Shinichi's voice continued, "there are some evidences that the culprit failed to get rid of. First, every room's window was locked except that for the bathroom window. Second, evidence of blood splatter is right there on the floor in the bathroom. Even with the time that he had to erase evidence, Nibutani-san didn't have access to cleaning materials so he had to leave it there and hope the police never checked the bathroom."_

_"Hold up," Nibutani said nervously. "The trick that you described, anyone could've done it, right?"_

_"No. I know it was you. Because Conan-kun attested that you blatantly lied twice in your translation of Mrs. Sanger's testimony. First, you omitted the fact that Mr. Sanger was headed to the bathroom, so as to deflect police investigation of that room. Second, you omitted the fact that she couldn't hear the shishi-odoshi until after the murder. Both of these omissions would have critically swayed the investigation in such a way as to avoid trouble for the culprit. Only the culprit would willingly do such a thing."_

_Knowing he was beat and that as a result he didn't have to hide or lie any more, Nibutani felt tension exiting his body._

_"Yeah, it was me," he said. "After all this time, I finally got revenge for my father."_

_"Your father?" Megure questioned._

_He nodded. "It was sixteen years ago. My dad was riding on a crowded subway. He was standing next to a woman who suddenly let out a scream. Somebody had groped her. My father was one of two people who could've done it. The other was Mr. Sanger, who was visiting Japan at the time. The police looked into it, and concluded that since 'subway groping' was not a widespread phenomenon in America as it is in Japan, it was more likely that a Japanese man did it rather than an American tourist. And so, my dad took the rap for that man's sins."_

_He growled. "My father lost everything because of that man! Mom left him, his friends lost respect for him, he lost his job, had to spend time in prison, and...and..."_

_Nibutani Sr. had taken his own life., in the end. Those present here tonight understood what was implied._

_"I remember my father as a man who treated everyone with dignity and respect. He would never do such a horrible thing. When I saw that man's name on the tour group manifest, I knew Kami-sama had given me this one chance at revenge. Of course I took it, and gladly so!"_

_"...Was it worth it?" Megure asked._

_"I don't know," Nibutani said. "I'm feeling a range of conflicting emotions. And I'm about to lose my freedom, so...I guess I'm gonna find out."_

**Scene Transition**

_His head was buzzing and numb. _

_It felt kind of good, actually._

_Amuro opened his eyes._

_He was lying in a puddle of his own blood._

_He remembered what had just happened._

_Gin shot him. In the head. But..._

_Turns out it was just a flesh wound, he thought. Lucky me._

_He was not armed. He knew that if he tried to move, or gave any indication whatsoever that he was still alive, Gin would finish him off for sure._

_So for now his only play was to bide his time, and listen for an opening._

_"You don't have to worry," he could hear Gin's voice saying as the two men returned from upstairs._

_He couldn't see it, but Muscadine was fully dressed now, and holding in his hands a bundle of papers and passports._

_"Do this right and you'll never see or hear from me again," Gin said. "I want out. That's all I want. I don't have it out for anybody. I just wanna live whatever remains of my life in peace."_

_"How about Max?"_

_"Huh?"_

_"He's dead."_

_Silence._

_"Don't lie to me, boy. I know your plan was always to steal the Elixir on your way out so you can bring him back."_

_The cocking of a gun._

_"Is that a problem?" Gin's voice said in a warning tone._

_"No. No. I bear no grudge against Max. If you would steal the Elixir for that one purpose alone, it should not threaten our plans in any way."_

_Muscadine set down the items on the dining room table._

_He briefly put his arm under the table._

_"What are you doing?" Gin demanded._

_"What do you mean?"_

_"Is there some kind of alarm under the table?"_

_"Alarm? No. Nothing like that."_

_Pushing Muscadine out of the way, Gin checked._

_"You son of a b**ch," he said out loud. "What is that?"_

_He pointed his rifle at Muscadine's head once more. "What IS that?! Answer me!"_

_"Vindication," Muscadine said. "For Irish."_

_Irish? That was his son's name? Bourbon thought. Hold on, didn't I meet him once?_

_There was no time. If his intuition was correct..._

_It was now or never._

_He bolted up to his feet and made a run for the door._

_Gin, instead of firing on him, dropped his rifle and dashed after him._

_Both men knew what was coming. Whatever enmity they held for each other, getting out of that house was their paramount concern._

_"O Giver of Days," Muscadine whispered, "Remember thy servant, in the hour of his fall."_

_*BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM*_

**Scene Transition**

_Bourbon was able to make it out of the house in time._

_Gin wasn't quite so lucky._

_Half of a leg having been blown off, Gin crawled away from the burning rubble which had once been his teenage home._

_And then, he felt someone lifting him to his feet. Amuro, against his better instinct, had come back for him._

_"...You're hopeless, you know," Gin muttered, on the verge of coughing up blood._

_"Shut up Gin," Amuro said as he carried him across the nighttime driveway._

_They neared the lake._

_"Lay me down over there," Gin said, pointing. "Under that tree."  
_

_Amuro did as Gin asked._

_Resting his head and yet unable to get comfortable, Gin knew this was the place where he was going to die for real._

_He laughed._

_"What's so funny?" Amuro asked._

_"So it was you all along," Gin said._

_"...What makes you think that?"_

_"Only one of the good guys would come back for the sake of his enemy," Gin said. "Well, good guy, bad guy, it's all a matter of perspective, I suppose. But we the Black Crows have always been assigned the dirty work. And we do it without considering the end goal. No. Rather, we do it because it's our job, for the money. We're mercenaries, in a way. And mercenaries are always scum, whatever side they fight for."_

_Amuro wasn't about to argue with that._

_"You know what you gotta do," Gin said. "Let me die, and feed my body to the flames. You can't let them take me. Not again. Now that my image has been cemented in their minds as the traitor they've been looking for, what they've subjected me to so far pales in comparison to what they'll spend the rest of time doing to me. The only way I can know peace is if nobody can bring me back. If you have any compassion, you will grant me this."_

_"Gin..."_

_Gin smiled. "You guys have it too, don't you? The Elixir. When this is all over, please: bring back Max. No. Not just Max, but also, the girl. Akane. I don't remember her last name, but our orphanage was Christian, so her body was not cremated. Something about the resurrection in the last days. I guess, in a way, they weren't wrong. I cannot atone for all of my crimes, but if you can at least bring her back, I think I can rest satisfied in that."_

_Gin gave Amuro the name of the orphanage from where to begin his search._

_"You'll do it...won't you?"_

_Amuro nodded. "Yeah. I'll do it. As soon as this is all over, and the earth is forced to give us back our dead. I'll remember."_

_No answer._

_"Gin?"_

_"...There's one more thing. In my apartment, there's a letter. I wrote it for Max. Before the police go through my things, go and retrieve it."_

_He gave the name of the apartment, his room number, and the lock combination number, to Amuro._

_As soon as he finished, Dylan Cliffberg breathed his last._

_Soon after, Agent Bourbon was able to convince the Organization that Gin was the traitor, who'd held him at gunpoint and made him escape with him. __They accepted this explanation, and his position within their ranks was quickly restored by the Council, citing the current manpower shortage._

_And yes, when he regained his freedom the first thing he did was to pay Gin's apartment a visit..._

**Ending**

(Dance of the Nutcracker Prince by Aoi Yuki, Bonnie's VA)

Nodding off that drab evening, my form was transfigured suddenly

Clad in colorful garments I found myself in the middle of a field

Beneath a brilliant canopy of stars lost to the world I knew

I was in a place not found on any map but only in storybooks

Having just gained my bearings I was most puzzled to behold

At the end of the field was none other than a yellow brick road

At the end of the road was an imposing castle on top of a hill

Propelled by nothing the drawbridge lowered, welcoming me

Waiting for me inside, a gentleman of a long-dead breed

The ensemble sprang to life, setting a dignified mood

I took his arm and side, as the night's first waltz began

Locked in a stately embrace we danced across the stage

The vigor in his step took us faster, and then faster still

But I didn't speak up; I was having the time of my life

In free-spirited orbit of the margins, as a celestial object

Spinning until everything was a blur, except for his eyes

Laughing merrily, we rested our heads beneath the oak

"My lady," he said, "it was an honor to have this dance."

"This night belongs to you. Let no one take it from you."

"All things under the sun must fade. Can you see it now?"

An unforgettable night crossed the threshold of dawn

A finishing bow he gave as the sun washed him away

I am scared to death of having to live one more day

In this sterile world viewed through a gray tinted lens

Of heavy feet, cold eyes, hollow words and jaded hearts

Walking through a graveyard of dreams and expectations

My eyes once saw absurdities that I will never see again

Between a subdued earth and a kind moon, in his arms

The shrunken high school detective sighed. "Elena-san, ten years ago you went through a lot of trouble to find somebody of my description at the beach. You know which one I'm talking about. You arranged to speak with me in private, and then, after you said your piece, you erased my memory of having come."

(Author's Note: If you don't know what I'm talking about, see "The Detectives' Classroom From Ten Year Ago")

He continued: "And then, fairly recently, you went out of your way to make me remember what happened there, and what you said back then."

"And I suppose you want to ask me why I did all that?" Elena said.

He shook his head. "No. I think I already have a good idea, of what your plans for me are."

Elena Miyano's eyes widened in horror.

He looked her square in the eye. "Did you really think...that I'd just lie down and let it happen?"

The moonlight reflected their figures on the stillest part of the waters, closest to the dry shore.

"...How did you figure it out?" she asked.

"It was Amuro-san. When he visited Gin's apartment, he found a package. Opened. Gin didn't remember its contents, because if he did I would not be standing here right now. He must've received it within two weeks of the destruction of the Kirie Building. Inside was a recording of the things I said during Ran's funeral. Of my vow to bring down the Organization. On top of that was my doxxing of Gin's existence and real name. The Japanese police subsequently reopened their investigation into the man, though for obvious reasons I didn't cooperate with them further."

"I see," Elena said. "And you think I sent Gin the package?"

Conan shook his head. "I don't 'think' anything. I know it was you. And you sent him two separate packages. The first was months before, and contained police files. You wanted to let him sit on that for a while before finally revealing that I was not only his enemy but that of the entire Organization. Elena-san, if you had your way I would be dead already. Had you not moved to destroy the Kirie Building you would've succeeded. The fact that we're here right now having this conversation must be a major setback, from where you're standing."

"Why on earth would I want you dead?" Elena asked, holding out hope that Kudo-kun still didn't grasp the situation.

"Ah. About that," Conan said. "If I recall, ten years ago, what happened then was..."

**Scene Transition**

_No longer dressed for the beach, eight year old Shinichi nonetheless found himself returning once last time to this amazing landscape that belonged to a tropical paradise._

_They'd already packed their things onto the boat. But shortly before it was time to board the ferry for the long ride home, he remembered what the nice lady had told him:_

_"Kudo-kun, before you go, come to the beach. I'll be waiting for you there. For winning the contest there's a special prize I'd like to give you. You'll really like it so whatever you do don't forget to drop by."_

_She had added also: "And come alone."_

_So here he was._

_His feet made contact with the warm sand. It was sort of hard to walk on but he didn't mind._

_He made his way toward her._

_She turned around._

_This woman, quite beautiful, was wearing a two-piece swimsuit with a long, unbuttoned white blouse over it._

_To his kid self, that meant nothing, of course._

_"Oba-san, you said you have a present for me?" he asked._

_She grinned. "But of course. Come a little closer."_

_He came closer. She bent down. They were face to face now._

_"...Well?" he asked, starting to get impatient._

_..._

_And then her expression turned serious._

_"I am so, so sorry, for the future that I impose upon you now."_

_With that, she pulled out a strange contraption, aimed it at his head, and pressed the button._

_He immediately lost consciousness._

_The next thing he knew, he awoke on board the ferry, his memory of the entire trip to Tengai-jima having been purged from his memory._

**Scene Transition**

"I am very sorry," Conan recalled her saying. "But why would you have said that? Why would you have made me come there and then erased my memory of it having ever happened? Most importantly, why did you have me remember?"

"You already know the answer to that, I suspect."

He nodded. "It was guilt, wasn't it? You knew that it would be my time to go soon, or so it would've been had your plan succeeded. You wanted your original apology to 'stick'. For that you had me remember it, confident that I would be unaware of its context, and so that it would not render me able to thwart said plans."

"But here we are," Elena said bitterly. "How stupid of me."

"Nobutaro's prophecy," Conan said. "That's what this is about. All of this time, you sought to use me as your 'sacrifice'. The Prophecy warned of a 'clever fool, of great talent, a silver dart that might smash you to pieces without warning'. The 'sorceress' would pave the way for the clever fool. The clever fool would be a treacherous person who at least at one time had been an accepted member of the Organization, but who conspired to subvert their designs."

He continued:

"Silver dart is more commonly translated as 'silver bullet'. As for that part of the prophecy, even the Black Crows, who are generally unaware of the Prophecy, the Council, and the religious undertones of the Organization, know about it. There have been different theories, held to by different people, about who the clever fool, AKA the silver bullet, is. But one thing's clear: the Organization will not proceed with its final plan until they can rest confident that the Silver Bullet has been found and disposed of."

He looked up at Elena. "Elena-san, you are the most obvious candidate. Or at least, you would be if only the Organization knew that you were still alive. But since they presume you to be dead, they're forced to look elsewhere. You've been grooming me for a very long time, to become a famed high school detective who would one day cross paths with that Organization. You arranged for me to infiltrate their ranks, so that everything would line up with that Prophecy. In short, you planned all along to dangle me in front of them as the gift-wrapped, shiny MacGuffin they've been looking for. Once I was gone, they would proceed, and you would proceed then and there with your own 'final plan' to eliminate them once and for all, made possible by the preordained set of final actions on their part. The thing is, of course, that you are a selfish woman, and you wanted to be around to see the final defeat of the Organization, and live happily ever after with your family. This was your plan, even if it meant the assured and irreversible demise of a teenage boy who, like you, also looked to the future with hope and aspiration."

Elena interrupted his monologue by removing her lab coat. She held it out in front of herself like a matador waving a red cape before a bull.

"What are you doing?" Conan asked.

"Well, this would look better if I were holding a wineglass, so my coat will have to do. That is what you had planned for tonight's menu, no? A little demonstration from one of your buddies with a gun. To show that you mean business."

It was obvious to her that she struck a nerve. Conan's face gave it all away.

"Let me venture to take a guess," she said. "Rei-kun is still loyal to me. Akai wouldn't turn on the mother of the woman he loves. So that leaves...(Yoshiteru) Nichimura?"

C-Crap, she's right on the money, Conan thought.

"Let me make this easy for you," Elena said.

She waved in the direction of a nearby sand dune and then held her coat out once more.

...

...

Nothing.

"Huh?" Conan let out.

Elena smirked. "Boy, I'm not as clueless as you think I am. I figured you might pull a stunt like this. So I asked Akai to tag along tonight, to take care of any unwanted guests."

She gave Conan a big, fake smile, one which obviously masked murderous rage.

Conan was unable to do anything but smile back.

And then he made a run for it.

Or, at least, he tried.

But she grabbed his head and threw him to the ground.

She stepped on his chest with her stiletto heel. The pressure was so great that he couldn't breathe.

"Let me tell you something, boy," she said calmly. "I'm not playing around anymore. You think you can get away with threatening me, threatening my family, and whoever else you think you can use as leverage. I am Elena Miyano, the godfather of the international struggle against the Organization. Only Nobutaro himself did more than I have."

He tossed and squirmed in vain to break free of her bone-crushing force.

"And you? Who in the world do you think you are? Shinichi Kudo, high school detective? When I look at you, I see nothing more than a pawn, to use as I see fit. You are not above me. You are not better than me. You have done nothing to earn the right to make demands. I brought Ran back from the dead. That means you owe me. Ran is your everything, which means you owe me your everything. Yes, even your life. My original plan will go on regardless. Before, you would've gone to the grave oblivious. Now you know of your fate ahead of time. But it changes. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because if you would dare turn on me, I won't just stop with Ran. No. I will murder *your* entire family, just as you threatened mine. Am I cl-

*pew*

In shock, she stumbled backwards. And fell down.

She felt her cheek. Fresh blood was seeping out of the open wound, caused by a bullet that grazed her face with a sniper's precision.

If Nichimura had been dealt with already, then that meant-

Akai turned on her?

Desperately refilling his lungs with air, Conan rose to his knees, and then to his feet.

Neither of them spoke. They needed a moment to clear their heads of lingering raw emotion.

But soon enough, they were sufficiently "spent" to continue. Elena was the first to speak up:

"...What now?"

**The End**


End file.
